4,256 refugee families return via Spin Boldak this year

KANDAHAR (Pajhwok): A total of 4,256 Afghan refugee families returned from Pakistan via the Spin Boldak border crossing into southern Kandahar province this year, officials say.

The Refugee and Repatriate Department of Kandahar province says the returning families have been distributed $2.4 million in aid from the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Mohammad Azim Nawabi, the department head, told Pajhwok Afghan News said the process of Afghan refugees’ repatriation from Pakistan had recently hastened due their tough life and other problems in the neighboring country.

He said since the beginning of the Afghan year 1396 (March 22), a total of 4256 families encompassing 11856 individuals returned to the country from Pakistan via the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing.

He said the returning families belonged to various provinces and they went to their home areas after receiving the UNHRC cash assistance.

Last year, a total of 7933 families returned from Pakistan and they had received $14.7 from the UNHCR.

Nawabi said 1178 Afghans had been arrested in Pakistan for lacking legal stay documents and after competing their jail terms, they were handed over to the Afghan authorities this year.

After their handover, the former detainees were given food and non-food items by the International Organization of Migration and were reunited with their families.

While last year, the number of Afghans detained in Pakistan was 9821 who were handed over to the local authorities via the border crossing.

Nawabi said the IOM was assisting Afghans who were unable to get registered in Pakistan as refugees.

The IOM has so far assisted thousands of such families during the past few years.

As compared to the UNHCR and IOM, the Afghan government did little to assist them, he said, as he referred to the unfinished affairs of a refugee township.

He said during the past 15 years, not a single refugee family had been allotted plot in the residential scheme in Kandahar City, the provincial capital.

He said another refugee township was being built in Panjwai district on 600 acres of land.